The same goes for hearing his group Cameo’s 1986 late-funk classic “Word Up!”: The song’s memorable robotic rhythm and Blackmon’s machine-like vocal delivery elevate it above and beyond the era’s ...

The foundations of funk were laid down in the mid-1960s, when James Brown began to emphasize the first beat of each measure in his stage-tested and frenzy-inducing R&B songs. Before the decade’s end, ...